Laminate Flooring

Laminate Flooring Is Affordable And Just As Beautiful As A Hardwood Floor

There was a time when laminate flooring was frowned upon because it is not genuine hardwood and people insisted on the real thing, but how times have changed! Today, a laminate floor has become something of a status symbol and a sign of responsibility as the green movement gains impetus; ironically, the use of natural materials for floors is now often frowned upon.  With our dwindling natural resources, an intelligent, engineered floor is fast becoming the smart alternative.

Laminated Flooring Is Responsible but Still Beautiful

Laminated flooring still looks almost exactly like real hardwood, but there are no expensive hardwoods in it; it is in fact an engineered floor at a fraction of the price of a genuine hardwood floor.  The secret lies in the resin-based melamine top cosmetic layer that looks just like wood because it is imprinted with high-quality photographs of real wood.  However, laminated flooring's wear layer is far tougher than real wood and offers superior stain-, burn-, scuff- and scratch-resistance; it does not need any special care either, as it can simply be mopped and swept.

Advanced Hybrid Construction

Laminate flooring basically consists of three main parts:

• The cosmetic top layer described above.  We guarantee its surface for fifteen years.
• This top walking surface is bonded to a high-density fibre board that is manufactured from waste products of the wood industry to render a hard, dense and very stable walking surface.
• The core and cosmetic layer rest on a foam underlay that can optionally be replaced with a rubber underlay for an even quieter-walking floor.

Our laminate floors carry a one-year installation warranty.

Hardwood Floor Disadvantages

Hardwood floors may look beautiful, but they have many more disadvantages than laminate flooring and a few of these are:

• They deplete our natural wood resources.
• They are extremely expensive because they are made of genuine hardwoods.
• They do not necessarily offer any advantage for their high price, because they hardly look any different to a laminate floor.
• Unlike a laminate floor, a wood floor has to be installed above grade; it cannot be installed below grade.
• A hardwood floor needs special care because the wood has to be treated with oils and waxes to maintain its appearance.
• A wood floor is not moisture-resistant at all.
• A wood floor is easily dented, scratched, burned and scuffed.

If you want to avoid all these disadvantages, insist on high-quality laminate flooring instead.